Notice to Obama and the Atrocities Prevention Board: Unprovoked War is a Nuremberg Crime

April 30, 2012 • 7:59AM

The notion of "humanitarian intervention," now repackaged as the "Responsibility to Protect" (R2P), if carried out in an actual military attack on a sovereign country, is a violation of fundamental principles of international law and U.S. treaties which bind the United States to those principles. Obama's new Atrocities Prevention Board (APB), by its stated objectives, would put APB officials and other top Obama Administration personnel into the category of international outlaws, guilty of offenses for which the Nuremberg defendants were convicted and sentenced, some to death by hanging. (The same would apply, of course, to a military attack or intervention against Iran or Syria.)

To review what EIR has previously reported:

The four-power agreement creating the International Military Tribunal for Germany (the "Nuremberg Tribunal"), included in its list of offenses for which there is individual responsibility: "a) Crimes against peace—namely, planning, preparation, initiation, or waging of a war of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements, or assurances, or participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the foregoing."

The indictment in the trial of the major war criminals at Nuremberg contained four counts: 1) Conspiracy; 2) Crimes against peace; 3) War crimes; and 4) Crimes against humanity.

Count Two of the Indictment stated: "All the defendants, with diverse other persons, during a period of years preceding 8 May 1945 participated in planning, preparation, initiation, and waging wars of aggression which were also wars in violation of international treaties, agreements and assurances." Twelve defendants were convicted on Count Two, in combination with other counts; seven were sentenced to death by hanging, and the others to imprisonment.

In 1974, the U.N. General Assembly adopted a "Definition of Aggression," which stated: "Aggression is the use of armed force by a State against the sovereignty, territorial integrity or political independence of another State, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Charter of the United Nations." It further stated that among the acts which qualify as an act of aggression, are: "The invasion or attack by the armed forces of a State of the territory of another state, or any military occupation; ... Bombardment by the armed forces of a State against the territory of another State; ...The blockade of the ports of the coasts of a State by the armed forces of another State;... The sending by or on behalf of a State of armed bands, groups, irregulars or mercenaries, which carry out acts of armed force against another State of such gravity as to amount to the acts listed above, or its substantial involvement therein." ."

The Chief Delegate of the United States, Warren R. Austin, told the UN General Assembly on Oct. 30, 1946, that the United States was bound by the principles of law declared in the Nuremberg Charter, as well as by the U.N. Charter, saying that the Charter "makes planning or waging a war of aggression a crime against humanity for which individuals as well as nations can be brought before the bar of international justice, tried, and punished."